Neck holes mis-aligned with pocket

Having a problem with attaching an old neck to a new body. The neck has holes from its former life but they are off about 2mm from the predrilled holes in the neck pocket. So the drill bit slips into the old hole when I try to drill a new hole, also there will be this empty space even if i could get a new space drilled.

Any suggestiions how to compenstate for this or any thoughts on fill material that would be strong enough to support a drilling right next to it?

Drill the old holes out a little bigger then glue some tight fitting dowel in there.(you may have to tap it in with a hammer.TAP!) Make sure not to put too much glue in the hole before the dowel or else the dowel wont go right in. Wait at least a day for it to dry properly then sand the dowel ends flush with the neck. When you redrill the new holes be sure to clamp the neck down so it doesnt slip and you have to do it all again. If you do it properly this will be as strong as new.
Mark the new holes and use a drill press if you can. Good luck.

I ended up filling the old holes with DAP plastic wood, clamping the neck in position and redrilling, the fit is now as good as my MIA jazz bass (which probably could be better!) so I'm pleased. Now I just have to figure out how to place the bridge~!!

Originally posted by blipndub Now I just have to figure out how to place the bridge~!!

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Set the intonation saddles on the bridge in the middle so that you have equal adjustment opportunity moving forward or backward.

Assuming it is a standard scale bass, the measurement from the leading edge of the nut to the witness point on those saddles should be 34". Once you get it where is should be, mark the holes with a sharpy and drill some pilots.

You may want to measure from both the top and bottom edge of the nut to make sure to have the bridge square.

Originally posted by Chasarms Set the intonation saddles on the bridge in the middle so that you have equal adjustment opportunity moving forward or backward.

Assuming it is a standard scale bass, the measurement from the leading edge of the nut to the witness point on those saddles should be 34". Once you get it where is should be, mark the holes with a sharpy and drill some pilots.

You may want to measure from both the top and bottom edge of the nut to make sure to have the bridge square.

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OK, now I don't want this to sound ultra nit-picky because Chasarms is certainly a guy that knows his stuff. I respect his opinion and he's right on with everything but...

...I prefer to set my saddles to about 75% of full extension as the starting point to locate the bridge. When doing this, I've never known a string to need adjustment to the sharp when first installed. Just pressing the string against the fret adds tension that would be eliminated by flattening the intonation. What this means mechanically is that by the time you've got the intonation correct, the saddles are more in the center of their possible travel leaving more room in either direction for adjustments. Of course, this should be taken on a case by case basis. Some bridges are longer than others like the BadAss II and they might need a different starting point to put it on the body in the proper place. Measure twice and drill once.

My reasoning is all my own because I've never heard or read it stated anywhere else.

Thanks for the input guys. I ended up extending the bass side saddles about 90% forward and measuring 34" from the face of the nut, haven't tuned up to check for intonation yet.

I also had to center the bridge on the neck heel which proved quite difficult considering the neck is "flanged" so that taking two strips of wood to mark the lines (as Martin Koch suggests) didn't work as the bridge was actually wider than the neck heel. So I centered on the neck and beaded down to the center (of five) mounting screw holes. I may be off by as much as two mm but i think I've compensated with a little neck tweaking. Action seems in the right zone, and the E and G string are equidistant from the fretboard edge.

Today I'm working on the electronics. Putting on a set of Bart 8S I got from Allparts. I was surprised to find that the pups didn't include screws, springs or foam pads for under the pickups like other pickups I've bought. I had some extra springs laying around and bought some foam rubber and #8 1" machine screws for the mounting. We'll see how that goes. Again I was pretty disappointed to find that these parts weren't included with the pickups. I wonder if they were supposed to be included. Maybe I'll call allparts tomorrow.

The pickup alignment is strange and I'n not sure why. It's a p-bass split coil but the string spacing on the ends isn't consistent, the distance from the G string to the edge of a the pickup is about 3/4 more than from the E to the ege of the upper end of the pickup. Perhaps the neck and bridge are alinged but not with the pickup route. I know the alignment is a little off as the intonation is off a bit although I'm still working on it.